Summer 2025 Graduate Intern, Affiliate Support & Nationwide Initiatives Department – Deputy Director’s unit

The ACLU seeks a Graduate Intern in the Affiliate Support & Nationwide Initiatives Department – Deputy Director’s unit of the ACLU’s National office in New York, NY.

The Team:

The Affiliate Support & Nationwide Initiatives Department builds state capacity and strengthens connections between the ACLU and its network of 54 state affiliates across the country. Their work constitutes an unparalleled bulwark defending and advancing our civil liberties and civil rights. Through aligning chief program drivers, including legal, advocacy, and communications, ASNI staff lead efforts to build programs and drive resources to key battles nationwide, positioning the organization for future challenges. The Deputy Director’s unit is responsible for providing advisory support, programming, and resources to all affiliates, maintaining focus in areas of strong affiliate management, leadership development, strategic planning, and board governance capabilities and practices.

What You’ll Do:

The intern will be responsible for gathering and synthesizing research to support a research project focused on Indigenous staff experience of inclusion and belonging at the ACLU. The Deputy Director’s team is working with a consulting firm to conduct interviews with staff at the ACLU. To supplement the interviews, the intern will support the development of a brief history of prominent ACLU efforts related to indigenous justice. The intern will collaborate with department team members to follow up on information from interviews to create a timeline and brief summaries of major milestones. Additionally, the intern may be asked to synthesize other information from qualitative information the department collects via surveys and reports.  

Your Day to Day

• Coordinate with department team members to identify research objectives
• Review materials from interviews, surveys, reports, and historical information
• Organize research findings into key themes and synthesize information into insights
• Present draft materials to team members to share updates, solicit feedback, and refine approach
• Create a final report that summarizes methodology, key insights, and references

What You’ll Bring:

• Experience conducting research and synthesizing qualitative research data
• Experience working with multiple stakeholders to tailor research design to meet diverse needs
• Ability to effectively seek and integrate feedback to enhance quality of work
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Proficiency in Word and PowerPoint

Future ACLU-ers Will:

• Be committed to advancing the mission of the ACLU
• Center and embed the principles of equity, inclusion and belonging in their work by demonstrating commitment to diversity with an approach that respects and values multiple perspectives
• Be committed to work collaboratively and respectfully toward resolving obstacles and conflict

Internship Logistics:

• Location: Our internship program offers a limited number of remote or hybrid intern positions. This internship is remote or hybrid from our NY National office
• Time Commitment: Term-time internships may be completed on a part-time basis (10, 15, or 20 hours/week) or full-time (35 hours/week). Summer internships require a full-time commitment.
• Internship Duration: Full-time internships span 10 consecutive weeks and part-time 12 weeks. This internship has a start date of May 27th or June 9th, 2025.
• Stipend: A stipend is available for students who are lawfully authorized to work and do not receive compensation from other sources. Students with external funding may receive a partial stipend to bring their total funding up to the level of the ACLU’s stipend amount for that term. Arrangements can be made with educational institutions for work/study or course credit. Below are the stipend rates:
• $20/hour for undergraduate students or equivalent experience
• $24/hour for graduate and law students or equivalent experience

Priority Application Deadline: March 14, 2025

Why the ACLU:

For over 100 years, the ACLU has worked to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the United States. Whether it’s ending mass incarceration, achieving full equality for the LGBTQ+ community, establishing new privacy protections for our digital age, or preserving the right to vote or the right to have an abortion, the ACLU takes up the toughest civil liberties cases and issues to defend all people.

Our Commitment to Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

Equity, diversity, and inclusion are core values of the ACLU and central to our work to advance liberty, equality, and justice for all. For us diversity, equity and inclusion are not just check-the-box activities, but a chance for us to make long-term meaningful change. We are a community committed to learning and growth, humility and grace, transparency and accountability. We believe in a collective responsibility to create a culture of belonging for all people within our organization – one that respects and embraces difference; treats everyone equitably; and empowers our colleagues to do the best work possible. We are as committed to anti-oppression and anti-racism internally as we are externally. Because whether we’re in the courts or in the office, we believe ‘We the People’ means all of us.

With this commitment in mind, we strongly encourage applications from all qualified individuals without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, national origin, marital status, citizenship, disability, veteran status and record of arrest or conviction, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

The ACLU is committed to providing reasonable accommodation to individuals with disabilities. If you are a qualified individual with a disability and need assistance applying online, please email benefits.hrdept@aclu.org. If you are selected for an interview, you will receive additional information regarding how to request accommodations for the interview process.

The ACLU does not accept unsolicited calls or emails from candidates regarding their application status.